Chapter 70: Steamed Pine Needle Crab

Putting thoughts of the house aside, Li Xiao continued to teach his audience how to prepare Pine Needle Crab.

He picked up one of the crab legs.

"First, I’ll teach everyone the simplest preparation method: steaming."

"These Pine Needle Crabs were just air-freighted from Japan today. The quality is excellent and they’re very fresh, so they’re absolutely perfect for steaming."

"I also just asked my assistant, and since all the orders are shipped via air freight, most of you should receive your packages before noon tomorrow."

"So, if any of you aren’t too confident in your cooking skills, you can just steam the Pine Needle Crabs you have on hand."

As he spoke, Li Xiao walked over to the steamer, which was already preheating.

Since it was already preheating, steam was already billowing around the pot.

"If you want to steam them, just put all the crab legs you just cleaned and prepped right into the steamer."

"Remember to wait until the water is at a rolling boil before you put the Pine Needle Crab in. Otherwise, if they steam for too long, the meat will get tough and won’t taste nearly as good."

Li Xiao placed the crab legs into the pot as he spoke.

Soon, all ten crab legs were in the steamer.

"This batch of Pine Needle Crabs are all roughly the same size. So, if you followed my steps for breaking them down, you just need to pop them in the steamer and steam them on high heat for eight to nine minutes. That’s all it takes."

With that, he placed the lid on the pot.

Li Xiao had no intention of wasting the next eight minutes while he waited.

"Another equally simple recipe is Pine Needle Crab steamed egg custard."

"If you’re too lazy to go to the market for ingredients, surely you have some eggs at home, right?"

"Eggs and Pine Needle Crab also make for a wonderfully simple combination."

"You just beat the eggs, then add the crab roe and meat."

As he spoke, Li Xiao picked up a pair of chopsticks and began beating the eggs in a glass bowl.

In the live stream chat:

"I’ve had sea urchin steamed egg custard at a Japanese restaurant before. It was so savory and sweet!"

"I only eat scrambled eggs. Steamed egg custard always has a faint ’eggy’ smell I don’t like."

"Gotta be honest, whenever I try to make steamed egg custard, it comes out ugly and doesn’t taste good."

"I thought I was the only one who couldn’t make steamed egg custard! I’m so relieved to see so many others are just like me!"

"Mine always turns out pockmarked like a honeycomb. I have no idea how to fix it!"

"Can you show us a different recipe, host? I really can’t make steamed egg custard!"

...

Li Xiao had planned his lesson to go from the simplest recipes to the most difficult.

He hadn’t expected that some people would find even the simple crab and egg custard too hard.

He resisted the urge to let the corner of his mouth twitch and explained to his viewers.

"Making steamed egg custard is actually very simple."

"I just saw some viewers saying their custard ends up with an ’eggy’ or unpleasant smell."

"The reason for that is quite simple. That smell usually comes from eggs that aren’t very fresh."

"You might not notice the smell when you cook them in other ways, but it becomes much more pronounced when you steam them."

"So, the easiest way to avoid that smell is to use very fresh eggs."

"If you don’t have fresh eggs, you can also add a little cooking wine and a drop or two of ginger juice to get rid of the smell."

"Of course, if possible, I still recommend using the freshest eggs you can find."

"As for the issue of the custard not being smooth and silky, that’s also an easy fix. After you’ve thoroughly beaten the eggs, just strain them through a fine-mesh sieve."

As he spoke, he took out a fine-mesh sieve.

The mesh on the sieve was extremely fine, preventing any solids of even a small size from passing through.

"A lot of people just beat the eggs and then immediately put them in the steamer."

"That’s actually the wrong way to do it. The beaten egg mixture has lots of air bubbles of all sizes, and the egg itself might have some small impurities. If you don’t filter these out..."

"...then the finished custard won’t look appealing at all. In bad cases, it’ll be pockmarked like a honeycomb, and the texture won’t be as smooth and delicate."

With that, he tilted the glass bowl in his hand slightly.

The egg mixture slowly flowed through the sieve, which caught all the larger bubbles and impurities.

Li Xiao held the strained egg mixture up to the camera.

The mixture, which had been covered in foam, was now perfectly smooth except for a few tiny bubbles clinging to the edge of the bowl.

"After straining out the impurities, we need to add water. It’s very important that you add warm water to the egg mixture, not cold water."

"Warm water helps reduce that ’eggy’ smell and also prevents bubbles from forming."

"You should add the warm water in a 1.5-to-1 ratio with the egg. This will make the custard much smoother and more tender."

As he explained, Li Xiao slowly poured the warm water into the egg mixture.

He stirred gently, so not many new bubbles appeared in the mixture.

But since he was already being so thorough, Li Xiao was determined to make it perfect.

He took out a spoon and skimmed off even these tiny bubbles one by one.

He set the prepared egg mixture aside.

Li Xiao picked up a crab leg.

He easily snipped off the joints at both ends of the crab leg with a pair of scissors. Then, he cut lengthwise down the middle of the leg, splitting the shell in two.

With the shell gone, the tender, pink-and-white crab meat was revealed to everyone.

"Raw crab meat tends to stick to the shell, so getting it out is a little harder than when it’s cooked. But it’s not impossible."

At some point, Li Xiao had picked up a spoon with a pointed tip.

He held the spoon up to the camera, pointing to its tip as he explained:

"To get the raw meat out, a pointed spoon is really helpful. Of course, if you don’t have one, a regular round one can work too."

"The method is just like scooping out a watermelon with a spoon, except this time we’re scraping out crab meat."

As he spoke, Li Xiao picked up the spoon and began to gently scrape out the crab meat.

"Since the tip of the spoon isn’t sharp, it takes a bit of technique to scrape it out."

"But as long as you’re not all thumbs, you should be able to get it out easily enough."

In the chat:

"So it’s another one of those ’so easy anyone can do it’ things, huh?"

"That still looks pretty hard."

"Tragic! I was about to go buy the same kind of spoon as the host, then I remembered I don’t even have any Pine Needle Crab at home."

"Watching that pink-and-white crab meat get scraped out bit by bit is so satisfying."

...